Machine for blocking or shaping shoes



April 28, 1959 F. DE VITO MACHINE FOR BLOCKING OR SHAPING SHOES Filed July 17, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet April 28, 1959 F. DE VITO MACHINE FOR BLOCKING OR SHAPING SHOES Filed July 17. 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Y EL lX DE 147-0.

mmawwhm United States Patent 1 2,883,686 MACHINE FOR BLOCKING 0R SHAPING SHOES Felix De Vito, Brooklyn, N.Y. Application July 17, 1958, Serial No. 749,194 9 Claims. (Cl. 12-535) This invention relates to machines for blocking or shaping the quarters of shoes and more particularly the rear portions of the uppers of womens low-cut shoes such as pumps, oxfords and the like.

It is well known that for one reason or another it is necessary or desirable to block, shape or reshape the rear portions of shoe uppers in order to assure a snug fit at the heel. Various forms of apparatus have been used for this purpose but these have been so intricate as to be costly to build and time consuming and diflicult to operate. Additionally, because of the inherent nature of the prior art apparatus, it required a high degree of skill and care to produce shoes of uniform size and shape.

An object of this invention is to provide a greatly simplified, durable machine which may be economically built and easy to operate and which will require a minimum of servicing.

Another object is to provide a machine which will positively and accurately block or shape the shoe uppers to the precise size and shape desired and thereby produce uniformity of size and shape of the treated shoes.

Further features, objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the machine embodying my invention with a part of the framework broken away and showing a shoe in position thereon;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional View taken along a vertical plane extending through the operating axis of the machine of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken on the ofiset line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 66 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 77 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings and more particularly to Fig. l: The machine is provided with a rigid supporting frame structure designated in general as 1 provided with a horizontal base plate 2 adapted to 'be secured to a bench or table such as 3 by means of bolts such as 4. The frame is provided with an upwardly and rearwardly extending front plate 5 stiffened and reinforced by means of a pair of spaced vertical webs such as 6 integrally formed with the base plate 2 and front plate 5 (see also Fig. 5). A rigid fixed die member is designated in general as 7 comprising a downwardly and forwardly inclined die head 8 in which is formed a female die cavity to be more particularly described hereinafter, and an integr-ally formed rearwardly extending supporting plate 9 and oppositely disposed downwardly extending flanges such as 10 (see also Fig. 3) carrying integrally formed therewith a supporting base 11 rigidly secured as by screws such as 12 on the upper edge of the front plate 5. The die member 7 is made of suitably rigid material such as cast aluminum so as to maintain rigidity when subjected to the operating pressure required for blocking or shaping the rear portion of the shoe uppers.

"ice

A movable male die member is designated in general as 14 and comprises a head portion 15 providing a die punch to be more particularly described hereinafter and adapted for cooperative action with the female die head 8. The die member 14 is provided with a neck portion 16 extending rearwardly from and interconnected with the head portion 15 and with a laterally extending enlarged portion 17 in which a pair of laterally spaced rearwardly extending rods such as 18 are fixed as by means of screws such as 19 and the rear end of the rods 18 are slidably disposed in fixed bearings such as 20 formed integrally with the front plate 5 (Figs. 1 and 5). The rods 13 serve to slidably support and hold the movable die punch 14 in parallel alignment and in register with the female die 8. The movable punch 15 is suitably heated as by means of electrical resistance heating cartridges such as 21 disposed in bores provided in the enlarged portion 17 and are connected to a suitable source of electrical energy through cables such as 22.

The die punch 15 is moved rearwardly on its actuating stroke by a rod 25 slidably disposed in a fixed bearing 24 suitably formed in the front plate 5. The forward end of the rod 25 is preferably adjustably secured to the die punch 15 in the following manner. The forward end of the rod 25 (Fig. 2) is slidably disposed in a bore provided in the die member 14 and is adjustable axially within said bore by means of a screw 26 which is threadingly engaged in a bore 27 provided in the rod 25. The head of the screw 26 is disposed within an enlarged recess 28 provided in the die member 14 so as to recess the head of the screw 26 within the punch 15 and a bell washer 29 is inserted under the head of the screw 26 and is seated within the bore 28 to lock the parts in adjusted position and additionally to provide a slight degree of resiliency. An added advantage of this form of mounting is that it provides for a ready means of interchanging die punches of different sizes when desired. The rear end of the rod 25 extends outwardly beyond the rear of the front plate 5 and is connected by means of a pin 30 (Figs. 5 and 1) to the forward ends of a pair of links such as 31 whose rear ends are pivotally connected by a pin 32 to the outer end of a bell crank 33 formed on the end of an actuating lever 34 and pivotally mounted for movement about a fulcrum pin 35 journaled in a bracket 36 rigidly secured to the frame base 2 by means of screws such as 37. The lever 34 is moved in a clockwise direction to the solid line position to move the die punch 14 on its work stroke and to its closed position. To hold the dies in closed position the links 33 serve as a toggle lock by having the pivot point 32 ofiset somewhat to one side of a line passing through the pin 30 and fulcrum point 35. Upon moving the lever 34 from the solid line position (Fig. 1) to an anti-clockwise direction sufficient to release the toggle lock, the die punch 15 is moved outwardly away from the die 8 by means of a helical compression spring 38 surrounding the rod 25 and disposed between the journal 24 and the rear face of the die member 15. The structural arrangement of the frame and manner of mounting the dies thereon makes it convenient to provide a multi-unit machine by merely extending the frame and adding duplicate mechanism at spaced intervals along said frame.

The particular arrangement and shape of the die and die punch will now be described. In order to better understand the invention, it is noted that in accordance with the novel principle of my invention, the die 8 and punch 15 operate upon the quarters of the shoes with a drawing operation and to better define this action reference is made to Figs. 1 and 2 in which the shoe being operated upon is indicated in general as 4-0 and the shoe upper to be blocked or shaped is designated as 41. The term desired plan contour is. to be understood as meaning the desired con,

3 tour of the shoe upper in plan view as seen when looking outwardly in the direction of the axis of the rod 25 toward the top edge of the shoe upper 41. So that with the upper edge as a datum plane the relative movement of the die and punch is in a direction normal to the plan contour, i.e., axially of the rod 25.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 35, it will be seen that the rigid fixed die 8 is provided with an arch shaped cavity whose walls conform to the desired plan contour of the rear portion of the shoe upper to be shaped and the side Walls of the cavity incline downwardly from the front face of the die and inwardly towards each other preferably along convex surfaces such as 42 which gradually merge into each other at the upper rounded end of the arch cavity to provide a convex drawing surface along which the shoe upper is drawn into the desired shape by the die punch 15.

The die punch 15 which acts as the male die is longitudinally tapered from a lower wider end to an upper narrower rounded end conforming to the desired plan contour of the shoe upper and complementary to the die cavity. The die punch is tapered inwardly and rearwardly from its front face in a direction transverse said plan contour to provide oppositely disposed drawing surfaces such as 43 which are preferably convex and merge together at the upper rounded end of the die punch. In the position of the parts as shown in the drawings, the die punch 15 is positioned at the inner end of its stroke showing the upper 41 after it has been drawn inwardly against the die cavity to bring it to the desired shape where it is held by the toggle links 33 for an interval sufiicient for the heated die 15 to set the leather or other material forming the upper in the desired size and shape. In order to accurately position the shoe 4% in correct alignment on the die punch 15, screws 56 and 51 are adjustably secured in threaded engagement in the die punch 15 and extend forwardly therefrom. The screw 59 is positioned to engage interiorly of the heel of the shoe 40 and the screw 51 is positioned to engage interiorly of the shank of the shoe 40; so that by suitable adjustment of the screws 50 and 51 the top of the shoe upper 41 may be placed in proper alignment on the die punch 15.

Operation When the lever 34 is positioned in its raised position (broken lines) the die plug will be moved outwardly from the die 8 a suflicient distance to permit placing the shoe upper 41 over the die punch 15 where it is held by one hand pressing the shoe against the heads of the screws 50 and 51 while the lever 34 is moved forwardly and downwardly clockwise until the edge of the upper 41 is drawn between the punch 15 and the die 8 to the closed position of the dies where it is held by the toggle links 33 for the desired time, after which the toggle lock is released by the first part of an anticlockwise movement of the lever 34 and thereafter the die punch 15 is separated from the die 15 by the helical compression spring 38.

The axial adjustment of the punch 15 on the rod 25 provides for varying the size of plan contour of the shoe upper within certain limits. For greater variation in size a suitable size die 8 and punch 15 may be readily used if desired.

Having thus described my invention with particularity with reference to the preferred apparatus, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art, after understanding my invention, that other changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and I aim in the appended claims to cover such changes and modifications as are within the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A machine for blocking o=r shaping the rear portion of shoe uppers, comprising a male die longitudinally tapered from a wider end to a narrower rounded end in conformity with the desired plan contour of a shoe upper and tapered inwardly and rearwardly from its front in a direction transverse said plan contour along oppositely disposed convex surfaces merging together at said rounded end, a female die of fixed contour of generally arch shape disposed in register with said male die and provided with an interior surface tapering inwardly and rearwardly from its front in a direction transverse said plan contour along oppositely disposed convex surfaces merging together at the top of said arch, means for rigidly supporting one of said dies, means for movably supporting the other of said dies in parallel relationship with said plan contour, and means for moving said movable die toward and away from the rigid die in a direction normal to said plan contour.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1 in which said female die is rigidly supported and said male die is movable.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 1 in which said male die is adapted to support 'a shoe to be treated and is provided with adjustable means for aligning the open top of said upper at the desired position on said tapered convex surface.

4. A machine of the character described comprising a rigid fixed die having an arch shaped cavity whose walls conform to the desired plan contour of the rear portion of the shoe upper to be shaped, said die cavity decreasing in size from its upper side inwardly along a drawing surface, a movable die punch having a plan contour comlernentary to said die and disposed in cooperative registered alignment therewith for engaging therebetween the rear portion of the shoe upper to be shaped, said punch having a drawing surface tapering inwardly and rearwardly from its upper side, means slidably supporting said punch in parallelism with said die for movement relative thereto in a direction normal to said parallelism, and means for moving said punch toward and away from said die.

5. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which the drawing surfaces of said die and punch are convex in cross section.

6. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which said punch is provided with adjustable means for positioning a shoe thereon.

7. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which said punch has a rigid fixed drawing surface of fixed plan contour and cross section.

8. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which said means for slidably supporting said punch comprises a pair of laterally spaced rearwardly extending rods slidably disposed in fixed bearings and said means for moving said punch comprises a rod slidably jou rnaled in a fixed bearing with its forward end secured to said punch and actuating means connected to the rear end of said rod and a helical compression spring surrounding said rod and disposed between said fixed bearing and the rear of said punch.

9. A machine of the character described comprising a rigid fixed die having an arch shaped cavity whose walls conform to the desired plan contour of the rear portion of the shoe upper to be shaped, said die cavity decreasing in size from its upper side inwardly along a convex drawing surface, a rigid movable die punch having a plan contour complementary to said die and disposed in cooperative registered alignment therewith for engaging therebetween the rear portion of the shoe upper to be shaped, said punch having a drawing surface convex in cross section tapering inwardly and rearwardly from its upper side, means for slidably supporting said punch in parallelism with said die for movement relative thereto in a direction normal to said parallelism, and means for moving said punch toward and away from said die, said last means including an actuating rod having its front end axially adjustably secured to said punch and an actuating lever interconnected to the rear end of said rod by a toggle link serving to lock said punch in its forward position in said die.

No references cited. 

